My Lovely Wife
Millicent and her husband have been married for fifteen years. They met, fell in love, had two kids, and moved to the suburbs — the kind of life everyone assumes is exactly what it looks like. What nobody knows is how they've really kept the marriage alive: choosing someone to kill, together, about once a year.
They've gotten away with it twice already. But their newest target proves harder to erase than the others, a local detective starts connecting threads that shouldn't connect, and cracks begin to show in a partnership built entirely on secrets — including the possibility that the person hiding the most from you is the one lying next to you every night.
The narrator's wife of fifteen years, a suburban real estate agent who plans their shared secret with calm precision.
The couple's fourteen-year-old son, drawn closer to his parents' secrets than either of them intends.
The couple's thirteen-year-old daughter, whose behavior grows increasingly troubled as the town's murders continue.
The detective assigned to the string of local killings, whose investigation steadily narrows in on the couple.
No. My Lovely Wife is a standalone novel — Samantha Downing's follow-up books (He Started It, For Your Own Good, A Twisted Love Story) are separate standalone thrillers, not sequels to this one.
Yes. It was a finalist for the Edgar Award for Best First Novel and the International Thriller Writers (ITW) Thriller Award for Best First Novel.